Western Australia is set to gain an additional member in the federal House of Representatives. Photo: AEC Images.
The number of Western Australian seats in the federal House of Representatives will increase from 15 to 16, but not before the Australian public has their say.
In the second of seven steps in the process of altering federal electoral divisions, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has invited the public to submit suggestions.
These suggestions may put forward names for electoral divisions, locations where a new division should be created, divisional boundaries or a combination of these elements.
All suggestions will be made publicly available from Monday 20 November and the public will then have until Friday 1 December to lodge written comments on these suggestions.
Afterwards, the independent Redistribution Committee will review all ideas, suggestions and comments and release the proposed division names and boundaries in early to mid 2024.
The redistribution process was initiated in July when the Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers made a determination that the state was entitled to an additional federal representative.
However, creating a new electoral division is not simply a case of dividing two electoral divisions into three as this would result in electoral divisions which do not meet the required quotas.
These required quotas refer to the current and projected number of enrolled voters in each electoral division, which must remain within the ranges of -/+ 10 per cent and -/+ 3.5 per cent, respectively. Quotas are calculated by dividing the current and projected number of enrolled voters in WA by the number of federal members the state will have after the redistribution.
Already, 13 of Western Australia’s 15 federal electoral divisions do not meet the projected quota requirement, with the remaining two close to not meeting this requirement.
This means creating WA’s 16th electoral division will require boundary changes to numerous electorates to ensure all electoral divisions remain within quota ranges.
Mr Rogers said the independent Redistribution Committee would consider existing electoral boundaries, but acknowledged the creation of an additional seat in Western Australia “will require most of the state’s federal divisions to be altered to some degree”. The redistribution process formally commenced in August to determine how exactly this outcome would be achieved.
“Carrying out regular reviews of federal divisions is essential to the maintenance of our fair, open and internationally admired Australian electoral system,” Mr Rogers said.
Members of the House of Representatives elected at the last federal election and in federal by-elections since will continue to represent their electorates until next federal election.
Public suggestions pertaining to the redistribution must be received by the Redistribution Committee by 6 pm AWST on Friday 17 November. They can be submitted online via the AEC’s website, by post addressed to ‘Redistribution Committee for Western Australia, Australian Electoral Commission, Locked Bag 4007, Canberra, ACT, 2601,’ or by fax to 02 6215 9971.
